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Friday, July 9, 2010

S.I.C. Vol. 48 Kamen Rider Gaoh & Kintaros Imagin Part 9 [Final]

From different worlds

Finally, the last part of my review on S.I.C. Kamen Rider Gaoh and Kintaros Imagin. ^^;

I was hoping to finish the entire review on the last day of last month actually, but was caught up in waves of workload, so I couldn't really sit down and write up something that I would be happy about to sum up this S.I.C. set. Every time there was some free time and I was planning to write up about this, I was thinking to myself, "Shouldn't you be doing your work or something?" and the desire to finish the review was completely blown away. I call it the "finish-all-work-then-be-free" syndrome. As long as there's deadlines to meet, close ones especially, the dreadful feel of not being able to meet them when I spend my free time on other stuff is constantly looming over my head, which is not cool at all.

And there's some personal reason as well, which you will hear about soon. ^^

This last part of the review looks at the comparison between S.I.C. Kamen Rider Gaoh and Kintaros Imagin with my previous S.I.C. figure - Kamen Rider Blade, which is one of the earliest review on Ex.

For your information, Kamen Rider Blade, Vol. 35 of the S.I.C. series was released back in January 2007; S.I.C. Kamen Rider Gaoh and Kintaros Imagin, Vol. 48 in the series was out in May 2009. That 2-year gap is extremely clear when comparison is made based on the amount of die-cast parts used, articulation design, even the packaging design

Or at least that's how I feel about the two releases, which might not be so accurate since these were the only two S.I.C. sets I have, in before I got S.I.C. Vol. 50 Kamen Rider Kiva, which I haven't open at the moment.

Extra booklet in full color on previous S.I.C. releases from "Kamen Rider Blade" series for Kamen Rider Blade. Kamen Rider Gaoh & Kintaros Imagin set only has the instruction manual.

More strings from Kamen Rider Blade (shown left) because apart from the figure itself, the parts he comes, mainly King Form's armors are held onto the plastic tray inside the box via strings.Most of Kamen Rider Gaoh & Kintaros Imagin set's accessories are held by paper tape because of their size, so the strings are just used on the two figures.

Accessories mainly for display make up of Kamen Rider Gaoh & Kintaros Imagin set's content; while exchangeable King Form armors are for Kamen Rider Blade.

At first glance, Kamen Rider Blade's parts seem to be of greater volume than Kamen Rider Gaoh & Kintaros Imagin set. However, it just has one figure included.

And a quick look at the articulation design:

The same elbow articulation range, even though their joints look different.

Ball joint for Kamen Rider Blade's wrist is quite a weakness for action poses, made worse with a heavy sword; Kamen Rider Gaoh's peg joint on a hinge, together with a light sword is a huge improvement in my opinion.But Kamen Rider Blade's sword definitely has better feel because of the gokin blade part. ^^

Totally different knee joint for the two, with Kamen Rider Gaoh winning the articulation test. ^^

But a total defeat for Kamen Rider Gaoh when it comes to details under the shoes. ^^;

For a moment there, if you're comparing between which one is more worth it for the money you pay, Kamen Rider Blade does seem to be more attractive. Further more, it's 3,500 Yen exclusive of tax. Get two - one to display it in Blade form and another one for King Form and the total price would be just 500 Yen more than one set of Kamen Rider Gaoh and Kintaros Imagin. ^^; I sort-of have this feel when I compared the two like this, and I did mentioned in the first posting that I didn't really favor Kintaros Imagin being bundled in this set. I just wanted Kamen Rider Gaoh.

Then again, S.I.C.s as with S.H. Figuarts are based on characters, and I believe one chooses to make the purchase based on the liking of certain characters instead of the amount of accessories and whether that is justifiable for the price or not. The details on Kamen Rider Gaoh are cool enough for me to go for it, and so the comparison between him (the entire set with Kintaros Imagin included) with Kamen Rider Blade is not exactly important for me at all.

Come to think of it, I'm still glad that Tamashii Nation decided to throw in Kintaros Imagin instead of maybe one or two of Kamen Rider Gaoh's goons from the movie in this bundled set. ^^;

And also, luckily this wasn't being released as a Tamashii Web Shop limited item either. I can't imagine how upset I would be if it was to be so. ^^;

1 comment:

Chris
said...

The extra hard paper jacket from Blade's box and Hero Saga mini booklet is from a re-released version. I think the original release doesn't have those. So this advantage goes to which version people gets.

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About Me

After obtaining his Bachelor of Business (Information Systems), Ngee Khiong pursued his post-graduate studies in Master of Multimedia from Swinburne University. Prior to joining as a full-time teaching staff, Ngee Khiong has worked on the design of several commercial web projects, as well as teaching as a part-time lecturer in Swinburne Sarawak. After ending his near eight-year teaching career, Ngee Khiong is now working as an administrative staff at Sarawak Energy Berhad.